On the brink

 Never in my life has the world seemed to be so much on the brink.

Not since the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis has the world seemed to be on the brink of such major confrontations. Think of North Korea, Ukraine, and the Middle East.

In each of these three regions, there looms the possibility of war between not just countries but coalitions of nations.

In addition, huge-scale savagery seems to go unchecked—in Africa (by Boko Haram) and Iraq/Syria (by ISIS).

No world power has the will to stop this savagery in a decisive way. Radical evil is being permitted to proceed without major resistance.

So I have been asked recently, more than once, “Do you think this is it, Gerry? You know, the beginning of the End of it all?”

This is the question the disciples asked Jesus at the beginning of Mark 13, which has been called by scholars “The Little Apocalypse”–the little discourse on the end of all things, as opposed to the big discourse in the Big Apocalypse, the book of Revelation.

This is a good time to consider this question. For it is Advent, when the universal Church begins to get ready for the Beginning and the End. The beginning, the birth of Jesus, that brought a level of deliverance to a broken and violent world. And the end, when Jesus will bring deliverance to a broken and violent world.

At the beginning of this Little Apocalypse, the disciples ask Jesus this same question while he and they are looking up at the Temple. The Temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world—made of gleaming white sandstone soaring hundreds of feet into the air, topped with gleaming gold that sparkled so brilliantly in the Middle Eastern sun that it was said that one could see the glittering gold at the top from one hundred miles away.

Jesus said, Not one stone will be left on another when all of this is torn down (Mark 13:2).

The disciples asked, in their astonishment, When will these things be? When will this happen?! (vv 3-4)

In other words, what many people are asking today, not about the Temple of course, but about the world.

Yet most of us don’t realize that for the disciples, the destruction of the Temple would have been the end of the world as they knew it. The Temple was so big that it took up one-third of the city of Jerusalem. Its destruction–and the destruction of Jerusalem–were horrific. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus tells us how during the siege people starved, ate their own babies to stay alive, and fought each other over scraps of food and scant political gains. Thousands of Jews were crucified after the Romans finally broke the siege. According to Josephus, so many Jews were crucified that the hills were denuded of trees in order to provide wood for the crosses. Worst of all, more Jews were killed by fellow Jews than by the Romans.

Imagine if New York City and Washington DC were not just attacked but destroyed, and one third of the population of those cities was killed or sent into exile, and foreigners then took over our country. It would be the end of our world. We would think that the sun, moon and stars had been shaken.

But in this discourse Jesus speaks not only about the destruction of Jerusalem, but also the end of the world: In those days, after that tribulation (the destruction of the Temple) . . . the stars will be falling from heaven . . . and then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory (v. 24).

These words, when combined with other things Jesus said in this discourse about what seems to be the end of the world, have caused major problems for scholars and many ordinary Christian readers. For he seems to say that all of these things would happen in the lifetime of his hearers of his generation.

Truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place (v. 30).

Was Jesus wrong?

That’s what some scholars say, and deduce from this supposed mistake that he must not have been God.

But this inference fails to recognize the nature of Jewish prophecy.It was common for prophets to predict in the same prophecy future events that could be separated in time by hundreds and even thousands of years.Much of the book of Revelation is like that—predicting things that have occurred over thousands of years of church history, but presented as if they would happen consecutively in a very short space of time.

Such an inference also misses the details of this Little Apocalypse discourse.

Jesus says, In those days, after that tribulation . . . .   This was a common Hebrew way of saying that in the days and years after a traumatic event, something else would happen.

The event that would take place “after” might be thousands of years later.

So Jesus was not wrong.  He was simply saying that the tribulation would be the destruction of the Temple–and in fact all of Jerusalem–and that at another distant future time would come his second coming at the end of the world.

His point was that the tribulation of the fall of Jerusalem would not be the end of the world. First Jerusalem would fall, and then after that—perhaps hundreds or thousands of years, the world itself would fall.

There are several signals that this is the case. For example,v 7: These things must take place, but the end is not yet. In other words, this (the fall of Jerusalem) won’t be the end of the world.

 Then there is his prediction of what must take place before the End: the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. (v 10)

Has that happened? Has the gospel been preached to all nations?

The Joshua Project at the US Center for World Mission says there are still 7000 people groups, representing three billion people, that have not been reached in a significant way by the gospel.

Many of them have been reached at some level.But is that enough? Or is Jesus waiting until these people groups have been reached in what the Joshua Project would consider a significant way?

If there is anything of which we can be certain, it is this: We don’t know.

Isaiah speaks of God hiding his face (Is 64.7). When His Son returns, and whether all these people groups must be more significantly reached before that happens, is among the things which God hides.

So it could be that Jesus is waiting until more missions are completed.Or . . . there is nothing stopping Jesus from ushering in the end now.

In either case, the End will be soon for all of us, when we die. This will be the end of the world for each one of us. And people groups or not, we will have to face Judge Jesus.

 If that is so, where does that leave us? Well, with the main point of the Mark 13 discourse: Stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the early morning (v. 35).

This meant three things, I would suggest.

 First, don’t be deceived by false claims about the End being near and by people passing themselves off as prophets, or even more.Jesus said at the beginning of this discourse, Don’t be alarmed by wars and earthquakes and famines—these are just the beginning of the birth-pains(7-8).

And then later, False christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Be on your guard against these things!(22-23).

 Second, be cautious and wise.Live sober and disciplined lives in the trying times to come.Jews in the first century had the wrong idea that after the Tribulation the End of the world would come immediately.

We are warned in this passage not to fall for our version of that same myth.It could lead us to let down our guard and run after a false teacher or false prophet.

Therefore, third, we are to stay awake, keep watch (v 37), and keep doing our duty every day. What calling has our Lord called us to? To be an accountant or teacher? Then we must do well at those. To be a father or mother, a husband or wife? Then we are to be the best at those callings that we can be. We are not to run off, following a new prophet who claims to have a secret insight into the End Times.

Instead we should stick with those pastors and teachers who interpret the Bible as the Great Tradition has interpreted it. And in the meantime, keep on keeping on.

So that when the master returns, He will find us “on the job.”